Populus Live – Is It Worth It?

Populus Live is a small company that was established in 2011. It has been increasing in size since it was founded, having a 37% growth rate. They are a subsidiary for Populus Limited, which is a global corporation spanning several different niches. They have experienced a large growth spurt in the last couple of years, the progress advancing with no sign of stopping. Populus Live is the marketing side of the company, and is the branch that deals directly with the companies by collaborating with the PR departments for each of these large companies. The surveys tend to be reflective of current social and political problems, although there are tons of other subjects they poll about. You can take the surveys on your computer, however they are emailed to you, not posted on a forum style website where it's an “all you can eat” type of business.

For the most part, Populus is a normal survey website. You sign up, you get surveys, you complete them (in a timely fashion; if you speed through you'll be penalized, with the same result as going too slow) However, it depends strongly on where you are living. In the UK, they will promise to pay you minimum wage or more to do the surveys full time, which is a pretty sweet deal to use as a fallback if your day job fails. In fact, one of their recruiting slogans is £1 for 5 minutes of work. However, you need to be able to get on their selective panels for this offer to apply. For the majority of their customers, they have to be sent surveys, and won’t have an opportunity to be on one of the panels. One main problem is that there aren’t enough surveys (from online comments, it seemed to be between 1-5 a week), which can be both a blessing and a curse. Your inbox isn't going to be flooded with hundreds of stupid surveys. That being said, you also won't become a slumdog millionaire. If you’re trying to make a significant sum of money, then there’s just not going to be enough work for you. However, if you just want to get 25$ here or there for a couple of hours work, then there’s plenty of work.

How Much You Can Make

The pay for Populus is actually pretty good. You can earn about £1, or $1.27 per five minutes of work. You are awarded between 1-3 points for each of these surveys, and one point is £1. One downside is that they only pay using checks, with no plans to switch to having a different form of payment other than checks unlike many other online survey that offer giftcards and other cool rewards. One other downside for the pay is you can only redeem when there are £50; an incredibly high threshold that, according to the comments, people can only reach a handful of times a year. Throughout the many comments about this website, I saw a handful that were having problems getting paid, which is an awesome track record for this company. It seems to be that getting paid reliably isn't a problem. There’s also a prize draw for £250 in cash (well, check. Still pretty awesome.) each month. The way to be entered into that is to be declined participation in a survey. This gives you entrance into the lottery for the prize for as many times as you were declined.

What Everyone Else Is Saying

The public perception of Populus Live is generally good, although when it’s bad, it’s really bad. There is a ton of information that is on the “Testimonies” part of their website that goes all the way back to the company's founding in 2011. The testimonies aren’t edited or touched up-they are pure and unfiltered giving the good, the bad, and the ugly of the company. Most of them center around how good the experience has generally been excellent, with a good support staff and little to no tech problems. However, there seems to be a consensus on the lack of surveys and the annoying screening questions that pop up even more than the surveys. The fact that a company this large has a testimony page that is unedited and legitimate with as many reviews that are on it as there are is insane.

How It Compares

Populus Live seems to be doing an excellent job for itself. There are few complaints, with most of those being centered along the lines of “there’s no work!”. To be honest, no survey site is going to make you a ton of money. If you need the money of another job… you’re just going to have to get one. However, it’s excellent for a couple bucks every now and then. One other complaint is that it’s extremely tedious to use. Customers are continually asked irritating screening questions, making it hard to get to the actual survey itself! On the other hand, the pay is marginally better than other survey sites. If you want to check out another survey site with few problems, check out our review of Swagbucks, our number one choice, or even go directly to their site. Overall, Populus is an awesome site with few problems. It has excellent pay, and good support for it's problems, which outdoes the problems that is may have. Populus Live is definitely worth it, and is recommended.

In Partnership with GoodMoneyHacks.com: Join The Mailing List, Receive Money Making Tips, & Receive A Free New Home Buyers Guide!

Affiliate Disclosure: We are a professional review site that receives compensation from the companies whose products and services we review. We test each product or service thoroughly and give high marks to only the very best. We are independently owned and the opinions expressed here are our own.